Artificial Intelligence: Comeback Chance for Japanese Manufacturing

The Third AI Boom AI is booming. Artificial intelligence has a history of about 60 years as a research field, dating back to 1956, when this name was adopted. The field experienced a boom first in the 1960s and again in the 1980s; the current AI boom, which started around 2010, is the third. Some easy-to-see examples of AI at work have attracted popular notice, such as the development of a computer program that can beat professional human players at shōgi (Japanese chess), IBM’s Watson, which beat champions on a popular quiz program, and the Siri voice-interaction software on iPhones. But in technological terms the focus is now on what is called “deep learning,” a field in which research is progressing at a breakneck pace. For example, it is hard…